Words Fail Me

Yet another little surprise.  I’ve always heard about the Hong Kong airport’s lounge — complete with a stylish noodle bar — which leaves other airports’ lounges paling in comparison, but I’ve never had long enough between flights to enjoy it myself.  I finally did.

I have taken cabs from Puxi to the airport in Pudong dozens & dozens of times.  But this time — as I go to the airport to move back to America — the cabbie surprised me by taking a northern route I had never, ever taken before!

It’s the little surprises in life that delight me.

For my last dinner in Shanghai, I went to the Boxing Cat Brewery in Xintiandi.  This is where Eli & I went for dinner the day I moved here.

When people ask me what I’m going to do after returning home from China and leaving DreamWorks, I tell them I plan to “walk the Earth.”

One of the most important things — perhaps the most important thing — in Chinese culture is the idea of 关系 (guānxì)  
  
  
  

They painted a caricature of Trump on the wall at Lobster + Chicken.  I can’t believe the America I’m going back to.

Reminds me of the Hobbits coming home from their epic journey only to find Saruman befouling the Shire.

A lot has changed since I first came to Shanghai in 2013.  We moved into the 15th & 16th floors of Greenland Center and then expanded onto the 12th floor.  The 12th floor is now deserted.
  This wall of QR codes at the Urban Planning Museum reminded me of my friend Ben’s vision for what was then known as Launchpad.
Finally got up the courage to try the choose-your-ingredients chili bowl place in basement of Greenland.  Doubling the number of Coke Lights available in the 12th floor vending machine was our consultant Mr. Henderson’s biggest success.
The “Greenland Being Funny” mall kitty corner to the office building finally opened after all these years.  Lu Qiong & I shared a lunch on our last day at a place there called Lobster + Chicken.  They were out of chicken.  I had steak.The Langham in Xintiandi replaced their front doors with a revolving door.  The doormen don’t know what to do with themselves. 

Saturday and Sunday afternoons, the walkways of Shanghai’s People’s Park are crowded with parents & grandparents trying to marry off their single children & grandchildren, each represented by a little resume with birthday, age, income, etc.